Volume 74, Number 19 | September 02 – 09 , 2004
Editorial
Protesters and police and trying for peace
With the Republican Convention at its halfway point, the protests surrounding the convention have been part peaceful, part tumultuous.
United for Peace and Justice deserves praise for leading a peaceful “World Says No to the Bush Agenda of Lies, Greed and Hate” march on Aug. 29 that they claim drew half a million people. That that many people marched without major incident is a credit to Leslie Cagan, U.F.P.J.’s national coordinator, and the coalition’s leadership.
Police allowed the march to flow freely from Chelsea to Union Sq., where U.F.P.J. used a small soundstage and marshals to disperse the crowd. There was one incident where a papier-mache dragon was burned by Madison Sq. Garden and the dragon group then scuffled with police, but it can’t be blamed on U.F.P.J. that a few violent activists chose to march and behave inappropriately. The trashing of Third Ave. near McSorley’s before a party there with G.O.P. VIP’s Governor Pataki and Dennis Hastert was, likewise, another act where a vocal protest would have been wiser and safer.
On Tuesday, police made 700 arrests, according to reports, apparently in an effort to preempt a day and night of direct action. Police may have overreacted and made illegal arrests — though protesters had vowed they would be blocking intersections and taking other measures.
Above all, this week has seen New Yorkers get out and vent their political passion. More than often, the sentiment has been deep disagreement with, if not visceral hatred of, the Bush administration’s policies: the war with Iraq on false grounds; failure to devote adequate resources to apprehending Osama bin Laden; the anti-gay marriage amendment; economic policies that have left many jobless; and the feeling Bush is co-opting our city and the World Trade Center 9/11 disaster to bestow upon himself the mantle of hero and defender. Yet his policies haven’t made us safer, as the massive counter-terrorism security effort in place for the convention attests.
The best way to show disagreement with the president’s policies is through massive protest. That’s what Sunday’s U.F.P.J. march accomplished unequivocally.
By the same token, the fact that thousands of protesters went to Central Park’s Great Lawn after the march showed there is disagreement with the policy of Mayor Bloomberg and the Central Park Conservancy about the use of the park for political rallies and other events.
On a negative note, we were shocked to hear about the mistreatment of Villager photographer Elisabeth Robert, who was rudely knocked to the ground by a police officer as she was photographing protester arrests on Tuesday night. The fact that she was a woman and removed from other photographers at the time makes it sound like the officer saw a chance to bully someone and took it. We’ll encourage her to file a complaint with the Civilian Complaint Review Board. That kind of police behavior is what, fearing for the worse, many protesters have been expecting.
That officer tarnished his badge and the image of the city, unlike the vast majority of New York’s police officers who handled themselves with professionalism and restraint during this most difficult of protests. We hope that both protesters and police can continue to show restraint as the week wears on.
